Ignudi, Stefano

IGNUDI, STEFANO. - Theologian and Dante scholar of the Conventual Friars Minor, b. in Genoa on 28 Feb. 1865, d. in Rome on 2 June 1945. Having entered the Order in 1886, he earned a doctorate in theology at the Athenaeum of Propaganda Fide (1891) and was ordained a priest in the same year; he taught letters and theology at Colle Val d'Elsa and in Genoa (1891-1895), then spent all the rest of his life in Rome. An esteemed disciple of Poletto, he replaced him for several years in the chair of Dante studies, publishing numerous Dantean notes and studies in various newspapers and journals. He displayed great activity in the Order and in the dicasteries of the Roman Curia. As rector of the Seraphic College he guided Fr. Maximilian M. Kolbe (v.) in the founding of the "Militia of the Immaculata" (v.; Rome 1917).

Among his numerous writings (about a hundred published, often anonymous, and roughly as many unpublished), the following are remembered: Il canto dantesco di Francesca da Iemini (Prato 1898); Il sistema politico di Dante (ibid. 1899-1901); Il canto di Dante a r. Francesco (ibid. 1926); Commento alla Divina Commedia (3 vols., Padua 1948-50). The value of I.'s Dantean conception and interpretations can be judged from an examination of this last commentary, theological-spiritual in character, and in that sense also original.

Lorenzo Di Fonzo